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Five Questions Jed York Needs to Ask Kyle Shanahan

Kyle Shanahan knows the rules. They're easy to find and even easier to follow.
Five Questions Jed York Needs to Ask Kyle Shanahan
Five Questions Jed York Needs to Ask Kyle Shanahan

When Jed York sits down with Kyle Shanahan to have serious conversation about his offseason violations which cost the 49ers money and practice time, here are the five questions York should ask.

1. Why did Shanahan allow these illegal activities to take place when he knew the consequences?

Shanahan has been in the NFL since 2004, and his father, Mike Shanahan, started his NFL coaching career in 1984. So Kyle Shanahan knows the rules. They're easy to find and even easier to follow.

Why did he break these rules? Did he break them on purpose, or was he simply careless? Either way, the answer isn't good.

2. What made Shanahan think he would get away with these illegal activities?

Shanahan knows his players and coaches can go to the league or the NFLPA and anonymously tell on the 49ers if their practices are in violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Shanahan also knows the league can summon his practice tape and watch it whenever it wants.

So why did he think he would get away with breaking these rules? Why was he so brazen?

3. What is to be gained from illegal bump-and-run-coverage drills in May when players aren't wearing pads and only rookies and backups are on the field?

Shanahan should have to give a cost-benefit analysis showing why it's worth risking fines and practice cancellations just to do some extra bump-and-run coverage drills in the spring which are expressly forbidden by the CBA. He should have to make a power point presentation and use a laser pointer.

4. Why didn't Shanahan fix this problem after the first violation?

Two other head coaches -- Urban Meyer and Mike McCarthy -- also committed practice violations this offseason. But Shanahan was the only head coach who got caught twice. Did he change absolutely nothing after the first violation? Does he not respect the league's rules and the health and safety of his players?

5. Why did Shanahan lie to the media about the cancellation of the final week of OTAs?

Shanahan said it was a personal choice to cancel the final week of OTAs, but in fact the league ordered them to cancel it. So Shanaha lied. And he had to know this information would come out, because it always does. So why did he lie? He hurt the integrity of the franchise. 

The 49ers want to win with class. Where is Shanahan's class?


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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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